JEDDAH, 14 January 2007 — After raising the Saudi flag at the starting point of the 29th Dakar Rally edition, Saudi rally driver Turki Mohammed Al-Sudairi continues his progress in the rally stages, which started from the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, on the Jan. 6 and ends in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, on the Jan. 21.
This is the second time that Al-Sudairi has participated in this most popular and difficult rally after his first attempt in 2005. He is the first Saudi to take part in this rally.
Al-Sudairi participates in this rally on board Mitsubishi Pajero car prepared by Art Rally Team from France and his co-driver is Algerian Samir Bin Bakhti. Nasser Al-Attiyah from Qatar and the Tunisian Abla Al-Aswad are also competing in this rally, whose distance totals 8,696 km, including 5,010 km of special speedy stages, spread over 14 stages.
The rally passes Spain, Morocco, Mauritania and Mali.
As many as 505 teams and individual drivers are participating in the rally featuring 187 cars, 250 motorcycles and 88 trucks.
Al-Sudairi competed in Dakar Rally in 2005 with Tunisian Sufian Idris, who has vast experience in this rally, as co-driver, on board a Mitsubishi Pajero prepared also by Art Rally Team in France. He succeeded in passing the first six stages before the bad diesel caused damage to the engine of his car and he pulled out of the race in the seventh stage, the longest stage of the rally.
